Teison is a new dance music powerhouse coming out of the Netherlands. Made up of two brothers, Thies and Stijn, these two producers are gaining momentum in the competitive dance-pop scene. Teison falls in line with driven European dance-pop acts standing out through unique production and steady stream of shows, singles like “Rain” and “Floating Away” shine light on the duos style and accolades. We caught up with the two brothers who took the time out to do an in depth interview
How has being brothers benefited Teison?
Stijn: It makes it just so much fun! We were always really close, and being able to share our passion for music together as Teison is just amazing. Being brothers makes our discussions and collaboration easier because you trust each other completely. We also have a third brother, he’s the middle one. He flies aeroplanes, so we’re hoping to bring him into the Teison team as our pilot sometime soon 😉
Thies: Yes and then we can take our parents on tour as well, our mom can keep us sane with hear team coaching and our dad can take care of our finances. This might just grow into a whole family project haha, for now just us two though. Our 10 year age difference also helps us in a lot in terms of skills outside of the music making, I’ll be a lot better at graphic design and running our social media whereas Stijn’s a lot more knowledgeable in terms of the legal and business side.
What are the most successful moments Teison has had so far?
Thies: Well as we speak ‘Rain’, which we released independently, hit the viral charts in The Netherlands and Poland and has over 140,000 streams on Spotify in just three weeks which is awesome. When I found out I literally ran around my house screaming, I then called Stijn and we went nuts on the phone. Things like that are super surreal and we’re so thankful for these precious moments, it’s especially special to share that together as brothers.
Stijn: Yeah, getting into the Viral 50 charts with ‘Rain’ is so surreal! But for me the craziest moment was passing 1 million streams across platforms with our debut single ‘Floating Away’. I still vividly remember the night one and a half years ago, when Thies stood on my doorstep in Amsterdam with a fully produced song, saying “I need some guitar licks to bring this one home”. Haha, we spent the entire night figuring stuff out, and the rest is history 😉
How would you describe your sound?
Thies: Oh crap haha, this one's always tough, Stijn you get this one.
Stijn: Haha, me?! You always laugh at me for not being able to distinguish deep house from tropical house, and tech house from techno 😉 So, the Teison sound. It’s a fusion between our two musical backgrounds. I’ve always played in rock bands and listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whilst Thies has been more of the dance music dude. The biggest pattern is that in all of our music the song is led by a guitar lead with electronic instrumentation under it. And they always build up to a drop that makes you want to dance your ass off. This way we sort of blend electronic music with rock and indie influences which creates the Teison sound. We ran into someone a few weeks ago that called our genre “Indie Poptimism” – we love it!
Where do you find inspiration for the messages behind your songs?
Thies: When we jumped into our first studio session for ‘Rain’ with The Earlybird we had a really fruitful conversation about optimism and making the best of what you have and the situation you find yourself in. I’m personally still at school and there’s people who constantly complain and don’t realise that complaining won’t help, if anything it makes it worse. This is a message we both believe in and we worked it into a metaphor of dancing in the rain. “Why shelter from the storm ahead if we can go dancing in the rain instead”.
Stijn: It’s really important for us in general to send positive and meaningful messages. We’re both super enthusiastic and optimistic guys, and we try to reflect that in all the music we release. It’s cool to see how with each different singer-songwriter we work with that optimism translates into a specific message that’s also special for that person. But the common thread is that it’s positive, and meaningful. And at the same time you can jump up and down to it!
How is 2018 looking regarding releases and content?
Stijn: Alright, so this is the most exciting thing of all. Rain is just the start of our new Teison journey together. After Rain we have four more singles lined up! Each with a different singer, and each with a new positive message. Then once we release the 5th song we’ll bundle all 5 as an EP, throw a release party in Amsterdam, and celebrate! That’ll be our debut.
Thies: Yesss, our debut EP will be titled ‘Gallery’. We chose the title because we love the concept of showcasing multiple songs in the context of one EP. It’s like where a painter would hire an art gallery in which he/she would showcase a couple pieces of his work. The pieces of art can be different but still have to work well together in one space with some consistency. That’s exactly what we’ve tried to do with the songs on the EP. Who knows what we’ll do after ‘Gallery’, most likely another EP, we’re already working on music that’ll most likely come out late 2018 so that’s insanely exciting! I’ll also be 18 meaning I can go to all festivals and events which is awesomeeee.
What has been the most exciting moment of the project so far?
Stijn: Coming off stage from our first Teison gig together in Rotterdam earlier this year. I’ve done a lot of rock gigs before, but being able to perform a combination of DJ and live set was a blast. You just get such amazing amounts of energy from the crowd, it was insane. And being able to share that as brothers is a gift.
Thies: Yessss it was! The first episode of our Journal video series shows some of the best moments of that night. This interview with EDMSauce is definitely on the list of exciting moments as well ;)) thanks a bunch for having us!
